Christmas

Malachi fell asleep in the laundry cart

Malachi, Austin, and Joseph with Santa

Austin talking with Santa

Joseph talking with Santa

Caleb with Santa at Travis' work party

Caleb getting ready to open his stocking to see what's inside

Joseph got some candy.

Austin got some candy canes

Betsy got some movies

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Everyone by the Christmas tree, with all the presents

Malachi loves his little toddler toy

Betsy and her yarn kit

Joseph loves his balaclava and xbox remote

Betsy loves pajama pants

Austin and her yarn kit

Caleb can't wait to start making music

kids playing with the "ball"

Everyone by the huge pile of wrapping paper left over.

The last couple of weeks have been filled with Christmas craziness.  So many parties, and events, I can't even remember them all.  We enjoyed doing the 12 days of Christmas for a family in our ward.  And donated a bunch of items to a homeless shelter, that Travis and his brigade marched from a park to the shelter (carrying it all in their ruck sacks) to donate all the goods.  Travis had a prayer breakfast, and two military strong bonds events for couples at Glen Eyrie Castle, that included tickets to a madrigal dinner that were worth $119 a ticket.  It was awesome we ended up getting to go to both madrigal dinners because there were some cancellations.  It was an awesome experience.  We got to attend the temple together, which was nice to be able to go without kids.  I had my piano recital which went really well.  We went to a breakfast with santa at the YMCA.  All the kids had dentist appointments, and it was terrible.  All of the kids had at least one cavity, and Betsy had a whopping TEN cavities.  We have been cracking down on the brushing and flossing.  I have been teaching 10 piano lessons a week, and have Joseph's neurofeedback appointments, and Samuels ABA therapy appointments.  We had our ward party, the relief society party, Travis' work party(I think he had 3 or 4 different ones he went to), I had two spouse parties, and the kids had school parties.  We made lots of cookies, treats, and chocolates and took them Christmas Caroling with our hand bells.  We broke it up into 2 different nights since we had so many to do, but unfortunately the second night of caroling never happened.  Different people would be sick every night, so we just ended up giving out the rest of our cookies at church on sunday.  We had a great Christmas.  The kids loved all their presents, and had a great time playing all day with them.  I made a cinnamon roll Christmas tree, with bacon, scrambled eggs, and orange juice for breakfast, then for dinner we had a tri tip roast, cheesy potatoes, green bean casserole, homemade rolls, and wassail, and cranberry/cherry juice.  We have had a wonderful week, we just need to get everyone healthy again, most of us have been fighting colds, and Malachi in particular has been having fevers almost every day, and either sleeping or needs to be held at all times.  Thankfully today, he hasn't had a fever and seems to be feeling slightly better.   

Daddy gone another week

Malachi and Caleb made videos to send to Daddy while he was gone

I made these orange rolls, they sounded really good, and I just had to try them out.  Everyone devoured them.

Malachi took one bite of an orange roll, and had to grab another one for his other hand

This one is Malachi shoving both rolls in his mouth at the same time, plus one more he grabbed and put on the table in front of him to eat later.  And yes, he ate them all.  

Malachi was so happy to be playing air hockey with Daddy after he got home

Breakfast with Santa at the YMCA, Malachi wasn't to happy to see Santa, but Caleb was happy enough for both of them.

So Travis was gone this whole week, and Malachi does not like it when his Daddy is gone.  Everytime Travis leaves for a while or he is really busy at work, Malachi really misses his Daddy, and tries to wake up really early in the morning (usually about 4:30) to try and catch him before he leaves the house.  So this whole week starting Tuesday Malachi woke up about 4:30 and by the end of the week he was very grumpy that his Daddy was still gone.  On thursday when we got the mail, there was an advertisement for a gym, and on the front of it was a picture of a bald man working out, well Malachi immediately got excited and thought it was his Daddy, and started grabbing the picture and saying "da da da da", well after a minute Malachi realized it wasn't Daddy, and threw the ad on the floor and stomped on it, and started crying.  Poor little guy really loves and misses his Dad when he is gone.  Since Travis has gotten back, Malachi has been holding onto Travis a lot.  We started the twelve days of Christmas this week, and have been having fun delivering them each night.  On Tuesday, I had to pick up both Betsy and Samuel from school for stomach aches, but they seemed fine pretty quickly, and never got sick, so that wasn't too bad.  On Thursday night I had a relief society Christmas party and I was playing the piano for the music.  That afternoon Joseph called me after school and told me he had a choir concert that night.  I told him I couldn't come or even take him there, because I had to be at the relief society party, since I was playing the piano and I knew there was no one who could take my place. So poor Joseph had to stay after school until his choir concert and then wait at the school for me to pick him up after the party was over.  He had no dinner, I felt so bad for him, I took him to get some food after I picked him up, but hopefully he will learn to give me more notice of his concerts in the future.  Travis had texted me earlier that day and told me he had a retreat in Breckenridge and it was overnight monday night.  He told me we would be gone on monday and tuesday, so I spent half the day rearranging everything that was going on those two days, and even had to pay a fine for needing to reschedule a dentist appointment.  Then I found out this morning that it isn't for this monday and tuesday, but the next monday and tuesday (the 15th and 16th) I was so frustrated, but I spent a while today trying to fix everything and put all the appointments, meetings, and piano lessons, back in place.  Anyway Travis came home Friday, and we were very happy to see him.  I had a really rough morning on friday, and was really happy to have my husband home again, I really needed him.  We had a good weekend, going to a breakfast with santa at the YMCA, and cleaning the house, and then having a pizza/movie night.  We also had our tithing settlement with the bishop and that went well, and everyone was very well behaved in church today, and I actually got to listen to all the testimonies.  I feel like I have been refueled and have the energy to keep going and trying to keep up with all the demands of my family and the season.  

Thanksgiving and Talks

Malachi loves Samuel's new skateboard

On Thanksgiving day, we were making vanilla ice cream, and Malachi loved licking the ice cream maker mixer.

Daddy helping Malachi put the star on top of the tree

Silly Malachi

Malachi putting Austin to bed

The kids following Travis around the tree, helping him with the lights.

So all the kids were out of school the whole week, except Austin.  She has a lot of school work to do, so she didn't really get much of a vacation.  We went to the YMCA on monday, and the kids all had a fun time, and I was able to get a workout in.  We shopped and cleaned on Tuesday and Wednesday.  Wednesday afternoon I started feeling sick, and ended up having diarrhea all night long.  Thursday morning was Thanksgiving, and even though I hadn't gotten much sleep, I still had to get up early and get right to work, since I didn't do any baking Wednesday since, I was feeling sick.  The kids, Travis, and I all worked on cooking everything and getting everything ready.  We had 3 other families over for dinner, and had a total of 8 adults and 17 kids for dinner.  All of the food was really good, and it was nice having friends over, it was especially nice when all of the kids went off to play, and the adults got to sit at the table and talk.   Travis left and went shopping about 6pm at Wal-mart and shopped until about 10:30-11pm that night, with just one call from someone who needed a chaplain, that he had to go on post to take care of for about an hour.  Friday we all went to costco (blindfolded the kids, because we got a couple of christmas presents)and got a fresh Christmas Tree (cut from Oregon!)  We came home and got out all of the Christmas decorations and spent the weekend decorating.  The kids loved getting out all of the Christmas stuff.  We also went out on Saturday and shopped for the 12 days of Christmas family we are doing this year.  We are starting it tonight, and doing it for the first 12 days of December.  Sunday our whole family was giving talks in Sacrament meeting.  Last Sunday the bishop asked us to all speak again.  We just all spoke a couple months ago, and it was a bit of a disaster so I thought we wouldn't be asked to speak again.  We spend some of Saturday and Sunday morning preparing for our talks.  We decided that this time we wouldn't sit up on the stand, so we sat on the front row in the chapel so we would be close enough to walk up to the microphone quickly, but not up on the stand.  Things went so much better this time.  I helped Caleb bear his testimony, and then Samuel, Betsy, and Austin each bore their testimonies, and then Joseph gave a short talk, I gave mine, Travis and I sung "A Child's Prayer", then last but not least, Travis spoke.  I also played the organ in church today, so it was a very busy sacrament meeting.  We started our Secret Santa project.  We all put our names on a piece of paper into a stocking, and each drew one out of the stocking.  We have to do secret acts of kindness for the person whose name we drew out of the stocking for the the week.  When we complete an act of kindness we put a piece of straw in our basket by the fireplace, and we are trying to fill it up with straw before Christmas, for baby Jesus.  We will switch names every week.  The rest of the day, Travis had to spend getting ready for going out into the field again.  He left this morning (at 3am) and should be back friday night.  Also the little girl I watch in the mornings is back again from Utah, so I am watching her in the mornings at 5am again.  I am very Thankful for my family, friends, and the church.

Halloween, Samuel's birthday, baptism, sicknesses, and Travis' gets his spurs

Superhero Caleb

Malachi playing in the sand

Caleb and Malachi climbing at the park

Betsy climbing at the park

Austin's 2nd self-portrait

Halloween costumes!

Joseph going through his candy

Malachi, Betsy, Samuel, and Caleb at the EFMP trick or treat

"Baby" the chicken perching on top of the bowflex in the garage

This is all the halloween candy the kids got, each column is one child's candy from youngest to oldest, left to right.  As you can tell Betsy got the most!  

Sam's birthday party, opening presents circle

I think Samuel ended up getting about 6 new nerf guns, he was super excited about it

Samuel blowing out his birthday cake

Sweet little baby Malachi loves books

Betsy and Malachi reading books together

Samuel's birthday breakfast pancake!

Malachi at the hospital : (

Samuel loves his new skateboard from Grandma and Grandpa Hardy

At Betsy's play, it's hard to see, but Betsy is in the back row with the red baseball cap, and Joseph is next to her.  They were having a toga dance party during the play.  

So much stuff has happened in the last month, even just going through the highlights is going to take a while.  I really need to keep up on writing in this blog, but life just keeps me too busy.  Before I tell about all the different events and happenings, I just wanted to say that I love my family.  I feel so blessed to be a wife and mother.  My life is full of adventures, ups and downs, and I love it!

Halloween

So this year for Halloween the kids got to go to a trunk or treat at Travis' work the night before Halloween night, it was awesome.  The soldiers had decorated the tanks, and set up a path to go through the motorpool with glow sticks.  Caleb loved following the lights to get to the next place.  The kids had a blast, and got so much candy, their buckets were overflowing.  Malachi loved grabbing candy, that was definitely his favorite part.  Halloween day, I took the youngest four to an EFMP (exceptional family member program) trick or treat.   It is what Samuel is a part of because of his Autism, it is a great way for him to trick or treat, because they don't give out any candy, it is all little toys and stuff.  They also had crafts and pictures.  That night I took all of the kids trick or treating around the neighborhood.  I really should have brought a stroller, because carrying Malachi for the next hour and a half was really hard, plus the last half hour Caleb wanted to be carried too, so I kept having to hold him, and give the baby to Austin or Joseph, for as long as they could handle it, and then try to hold them both.  Anyway the kids loved trick or treating, and I learned Samuel really loves the scary stuff, he couldn't get enough of it.  He definitely didn't get that from me, I don't like scary stuff.  Once again they got tons of candy (as you can see from the picture above), so when we got home, we bagged up all of their candy in gallon size plastic bags, and they got to eat one piece of candy, and then I locked it all up.  On monday, I took out some of their chocolate bars to save, paying them $1 for every 20 candy bars, and then we took the rest to the dentist and sold it to them for $1 a pound.  Between me and the dentist all the older kids got over $10 in spending money for selling their candy, and Malachi and Caleb each got about $5.  The kids loved making money off of their Halloween candy.  The dentist office was really impressed with how much candy we got, we sold them over 30 lbs of candy.  

Samuel's birthday

Samuel had his birthday party on Saturday the 15th.  He had a great party, with lots of friends, I think about 15 came.  It was a batman theme, and we had a few fun games, and opened presents and had cake and ice cream.  Samuel ended up getting tons of nerf guns, he was so excited.  He also got a skateboard from Grandma and Grandpa Hardy, and about $45 in spending money from different people.  On his actual birthday I made him his special birthday pancake, and for dinner Travis took him to the golden corral.  I can't believe my Samuel is 8 years old already, he is growing up so fast.

sicknesses

So this last month we have gotten a couple sicknesses.  I think the first was a stomach flu the week after Halloween.  Caleb and Malachi both got sick, throwing up all night, and the next morning, and having diarrhea.  I wasn't feeling good at all, but I never threw up.  Caleb started getting better after the first day, and Malachi seemed to at first, but then he kept having diarrhea and throwing up every so often.  I had to pick up Betsy and Samuel from school, because they both had fevers, and complained about their stomach hurting, but neither of them ended up throwing up either.   Over Veteran's Day weekend, everybody seemed to be better, even Malachi was eating a little more.  But, the next day Malachi was back to throwing up and diarrhea again.  This went on for another week with Malachi, and after the 12th day of Malachi still throwing up and having diarrhea I took him to the dr.  Malachi had lost a little weight since his 12 month appointment, but I knew he had gained several pounds over the last 3 months, so he lost all that and more.  The poor little guy was so skinny, and always cold, and had hardly any energy.  The dr. said that he was dehydrated, and we needed to get an IV in him to help him get better.  They tried 3 different times to get an IV in him, it was miserable.  None of those times worked, the nurses said his veins were just too small, or would sink and disappear as soon as the needle went into his skin.  The poor little guy was just screaming for about and hour and a half.  They were really surprised how much he was able to fight them, with how weak he was.  It took three nurses and me to hold him down.  They finally just had me give him pedialyte every five minutes for an hour, and then released us to keep trying and home, and if he was still sick the next day to bring him back in.  I think Malachi got better, just because he didn't want to have to go back and try to get another IV.  I am so glad he started getting better, it was so sad when he was sick for so long. The next day Caleb threw up in the night, and started having diarrhea and didn't feel good for the next two days, but then he got better.  Samuel got diarrhea too for one day then was fine.  I'm hoping everybody will be healthy now for the next while.   

Travis' gets his spurs

So Travis left about 2:30am on Thursday morning to start his Spur Ride.  This is a big deal and honor to earn your spurs in his Brigade.  Travis took a 55lb pack with him, and was issued a fake weapon to carry (since he's not allowed to carry a real one) and marched for 35 miles, stopping every couple of miles to run different drills, only getting to sleep in the freezing cold for about 2 hours, before moving on, finally finishing about 1pm on Friday.  We were so proud of Travis, he did amazing!  Only 2/3 of the guys who started this, were able to complete it. They had a ceremony Friday at 5pm giving all the soldiers who completed the spur ride, their spurs and an award.  We arrived 5 minutes late to the ceremony, because I couldn't' get the kids out the door.  When we got there, there were only three seats together in the very front row.  So while my six children followed behind me, we made our way to the front, when I got up there, the seats said VIP!  I turned around to go to the back, when the commanders wife (who was sitting up there) told us to go ahead and sit there.  So we started to sit down, but there were 7 of us, and only 3 seats, so it wasn't working very well, so everyone of the VIP's in the front row, stood up and started scooting down the row giving us a few extra seats.  I was so embarrassed, everyone definitely knew that the chaplains' family had arrived.  I will never be late to a ceremony again!

Samuel's baptism

Samuel was baptized yesterday!  I am so happy and excited for him.  I've always been a little worried for him, because whenever we would talk to him about getting baptized, he would say he didn't' want to, and didn't even believe in Jesus Christ, or love him.  He would also not pay attention during family home evenings and morning devotionals, and could not answer basic questions about the gospel.  He has done so much better lately, and has really grown up, and started reading his scriptures, and learning about the gospel.  We even had the missionaries come over and teach him a few of the discussions.  He has a really hard time learning with all of us there, since he is so easily distracted, it really helped to have the missionaries come and just teach him.  His baptism was wonderful!  Betsy gave the baptism talk, and did a great job, and the spirit was strong during the baptism and confirmation.  I gave Samuel a new set of scriptures, and he loves them, and started reading them right away.  He also got a baptism pillowcase (from G and G hardy) that everyone at the baptism signed, and put it right on his pillowcase, and slept with it.  

random stuff

Betsy was in her school play, and played the part of cupid.  She was awesome!!  Her teacher said if she had know how good Betsy is on stage, she would have given her a huge part.  It was a really busy night, and I only got to see the first half of her play, but she was amazing, so proud of her!

The sick chicken "baby" is all better, and back out with the rest of the chickens in the shed, we are so happy she is all better.

We had a crazy winter storm a couple weeks ago, and got lots of snow and it was super cold for a week, and then only close to freezer for the next week.  We got winter fast.  We went from a nice day at 70 degrees, and then crazy wind started, and four hours later it was snowing.  We did some fast winterizing.  The kids have loved sledding in the snow, except Malachi, he hates being outside in the cold.  I have loved having a nice warm fire in the living room, and roasting hot dogs for lunch, and having smores and hot chocolate.